Dostovoesky at his sweet short spot - White Nights and Notes from Underground

I think that long books are great. They have more space to develop characters, thoughts and plots. But sometimes short books are also great. White Nights and Notes from Underground are great novels to get into your Dostoevsky era.

White Nights

A sweet short novel about unrequited love. A sweet story about love that develops into an inner monologue about guilt and restlessness. What I love about this one is that it’s a great introduction to what will be other longer novels by the same author. Crime and Punishment, for instance, is an excellent psychological thriller. White nights feel like a similar inner monologue. You feel like you want to save this person who keeps getting into deeper and deeper trouble.

Furthermore, it is just great fun. You feel like this story could happen to you even though it is completely dramatic and exaggerated, and it feels, to a point, complete fantasy. How could someone fall in love with a stranger and then that stranger turns their back on them in such a short time?! Well, you feel like you are that same narrator. And you can’t stop yourself from feeling the same pain and the same love for this stranger. Even if it makes no sense.

Notes from Underground

This is slightly more experimental. Still a very psychologically centred story but in a less amorous way. I connected with this one on a more personal level. It takes place, again, in the mind of our narrator. This time he is dead. This time the narrator takes us through a horrible inner monologue about trying to fit in and be understood while being wholly immature and horrible at it. The narrator is painfully oblivious to people not liking him while still trying hard not to be liked. He is the quintessential pick-me.

I loved this one because I could see myself in this terrible narrator. I could see myself when he is trying so hard to fit in without managing to do so and simultaneously being so terrible to the people around him.

Both books are books to be enjoyed in a very short time. You can connect deeply with both narrators, and you can see yourself in them. You will see your flaws reflected in their flaws, and you will surely want not to be them.